The Co-operative has become the latest bank to announced a programme of branch
closures. It also confirmed the Britannia name will disappear from the high
street.

The Co-operative Bank today announced plans to close 37 branches and confirmed it will roll out a rebrand that will see the Britannia name disappear from the high street.

Branches are being shut where there is another close by - on average within half a mile and in some cases next door to each other - as part of an overhaul following its merger with Britannia building society in 2009.

But the group stressed a presence will be kept in towns and cities where branches are being closed.

The move will lead to 34 job losses, largely at a managerial level, while the bulk of the 188 staff employed across affected banks are being relocated to neighbouring branches.

John Hughes, managing director of retail banking at The Co-operative Bank, confirmed the group will rebrand all Britannia branches under the Co-operative Bank banner by the end of 2013, marking the end of the society's history that dates back to 1856.

The Co-op will have just over 300 branches following the closures, but it is poised to buy more than 630 that are being offloaded by Lloyds Banking Group to appease EU rules on state aid.

Its deal with Lloyds is worth up to £750 million and will boost its branch network to nearly 1,000, adding another 4.8 million customers to its existing 6.5 million base.

The group has cut around £70 million in costs following the Britannia merger in August 2009 and had originally planned a three-year integration to combine the businesses.

But Mr Hughes said the Co-op had sought to ensure a "staged and measured" integration following the deal.

Hundreds of bank branches have been closed in recent years - many of them in rural areas

HSBC last year announced a programme for 2012 that would see 69 branches closed. Some of its rivals, responding to criticism from customers, have pledged to remain in communities when they are the last remaining bank. These include Lloyds Banking Group, which covers Lloyds TSB and Halifax, and Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest.

The industry says it needs to consolidate the branch network to reduce costs. Technological advances and the increasing use of online banking has made many branches unprofitable.

The Campaign for Community Banking Services has opposed closures which leave communitues isolated. It says there are 904 such communities where there is only one remaining bank branch. According to the CCBS, HSBC has shut the most branches, at 386, followed by Lloyds TSB, at 354, and Barclays at 161.

However, Derek French, director of the campaign, said he accepted that there were "natural overlaps" in the case of the Co-op. He said: "It is actually very necessary if they are to raise their profile as Co-operative Bank on high streets in advance of the takeover of the Lloyds Group sell-offs. Those will be a much greater challenge to integrate.

"Having a mutual to match Nationwide on the high streets across the country is overdue."